Rory McIlroy mixing with giants after claiming the BMW Championship in style

Appropriately enough for a player whose ambitions become loftier by the day,
Rory McIlroy will spend this week training with the New York Knicks before
trying to snatch $10 million and then the Ryder Cup off America.

Winning streak: Rory McIlroy claimed his second PGA Tour victory in a week at the BMW ChampionshipPhoto: REUTERS

While his stature only increased with victory at the BMW Championship on Sunday, the giants of Manhattan’s basketball team will peer down at the 5ft 9in golfer and wonder what he is doing at their pre-season sessions.

McIlroy will not mind. Understandably, he feels on top of the world.

“It’ll be good,” said McIlroy whose fitness adviser, Steve McGregor, is also a consultant with the Knicks.

“We’re doing a bit of track work. I think their stride is probably a little longer than mine, but I’m really looking forward to it; just to completely get away from golf for a few days and hang out with those guys.”

McIlroy will then fly to Atlanta next Monday ready for two weeks of intense action.

Everybody but his closest rivals expects him to win the FedEx Cup at the Tour Championship and with it the outrageous bonus. Not least, himself.

“The more you win, the more it becomes normal, and it feels like this is what you’re supposed to do,” he said.

“I’m sure that’s how Tiger Woods felt. I don’t think I’m quite there yet, but I’m getting to that stage where I’m thinking, ‘This is what I should be doing – I should be lifting a trophy at the end of the week’.”

While McIlroy sounded relieved to be leaving the professional fairways for a break, at least a part of him would fancy keeping the fantasy going.

“The last five weeks have been incredible; the best golf that I’ve ever played,” he said. “I’m going to try and keep the run going for as long as possible.

“I’m making the right decisions out there and everything is just going to plan. Some suggested that I could have taken a week off and still could have been in the top five in the standings going into Atlanta. But I felt like I was playing so well I didn’t want to stop.”

Starting at the USPGA in Kiawah Island last month, McIlroy has lined up against the game’s finest on four occasions – and won three times.

Crooked Stick was his second triumph in seven days – having lifted the Deutsche Bank Championship on the Monday – and made him the first back-to-back winner on the PGA Tour since Woods in 2009.

It was his sixth US victory, which is the same number of American titles won by Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros combined, and stretched his lead at the head of the world rankings to more than three points over Woods in second, which is the largest margin since the Tiger era.

Of course, the money is rolling in with even more haste than the putts.

In that week he won £1.8million, which roughly converts to £257,000 a day, £10,500 an hour or £179 a minute. Very soon that could seem peanuts to McIlroy.

The shame is that the social networks stank all day on Monday with criticisms of McIlroy, repeating the dilemma that, as a Northern Irishman, who will he represent in the 2016 Olympics.

McIlroy released a statement, that said:. “I wish to clarify that I have absolutely not made a decision regarding my position in the next Olympics.”